LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

TPS needs to focus on students

I applaud your Oct. 26 editorial “Pay and stay” for keeping us informed about where our tax dollars are going. We need accountability from our elected officials, especially when they are asking for our money through tax levies.

Toledo Public Schools needs money for students, not for incentives for private business. How could the district even consider incentives for Owens Corning?

RICHARD HUTT

Park Forest Drive

Work with, not against, business

If Toledo Public Schools expects taxpayers to continue to support it, it should put the economic well-being of the city above protecting its turf (“Toledo school board moves to jettison old property,” Oct. 23).

Your article said that Manhattan’s Restaurant is interested in leasing the kitchen at the TPS-owned Jefferson Center. But the school board tabled the proposal because Manhattan’s wants to use the kitchen for its catering business, which includes restaurant services for charter and parochial schools.

By refusing to work with a Toledo entrepreneur, the school board puts potential jobs at risk, and with them the opportunity to enhance real estate values in the city. The school board apparently is more interested in preserving the status quo, and funding education by sticking it to the taxpayer.

If it wants money from property tax, the school board should concentrate on making TPS the best school system in the area in which to enroll. Then families will want to move into and live in the district, not flee from it.

J. FRANCES GALL

Densmore Drive

Polly Fox students part of community

Toledo school board candidate Polly Taylor-Gerken said at a political forum that she opposed programs that segregate pregnant students (“Contenders for TPS board stress roots in district, vision for schools,” Oct. 21).

If she means by race, the Polly Fox Academy, a charter school for pregnant and parenting teens in grades seven through 12, is integrated. If she means by sex, the school is housed in the same building with the Phoenix Academy, which has a majority of young male students.

Polly Fox is more than a school. It’s a community of young women with the same goal: to earn a high school diploma and continue to be a lifelong learner through higher education.

JIM WHITEMAN

Middlesex Drive

Editor’s note: The writer is a member of the Polly Fox Academy board of directors.

Varwig gets parent’s vote

I have had the pleasure of watching Chris Varwig provide service to Toledo Public Schools students since my son began kindergarten at Beverly Elementary, almost 15 years ago. She has provided assistance without hesitation in the form of time and materials to children in need.

I know of several students who would not have been admitted to the college of their choice without her support and guidance.

I am voting for her for a seat on the Toledo Board of Education. She believes in education for everyone.